With the Los Angeles Lakers trying to finish the season strong they were dealt a bit of a blow with Luke Walton announcing that Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, and Brandon Ingram are out for tonight's game against the Houston Rockets.
Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma are officially out for tonight. Brandon Ingram is on the court shooting. He’ll be re-evaluated tonight and is in the finals stage of the concussion protocol, but he’s still out for tonight.
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) April 10, 2018
It really isn't a surprise that they are out though because on Saturday Walton told Shahan Ahmed of NBC Los Angeles that they were probably going to be shut down.
“The fact that neither one of them has played basketball for a while would be a little concerning, but if those were the two scenarios in the middle of the season, then, yea, we'd feel much more comfortable throwing the one, once he got cleared, from concussion back on the court.”
For Ball, he is dealing with a knee contusion and he hasn't been cleared to play yet. Even if he was cleared to play it wouldn't make much sense for the Lakers to throw one of the most important guys on the team on the court for two games that meant nothing.
For Ingram, he is still dealing with the concussion and although he is close to being cleared, he too wouldn't play if he was cleared as they don't want to risk another concussion.
In terms of tonight's game the Lakers already had an uphill battle facing the best team in the NBA, the Houston Rockets. It should give the Lakers a good chance to really evaluate some of their bench guys though as they try and figure out who is going to be a part of the future of the game.
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